Pillar of Yita

The crystal projected a light screen that repeatedly showed some recent interesting happenings at the port—such as which areas were flooded and hard to traverse, asking pedestrians to take detours; which areas were rebuilding very successfully; and there were priests from Milaila spreading the word of God in the city and initiating ’humanitarian’ rescue work—and as for the word humanitarian, it was also one of the trendy terms learned by the natives.

Among these bits of news, there were also quite a few notices worth the attention of local adventurers, such as requests for help from residents. In Eteliria, people had long discovered that transmission crystals could be used for such purposes, and it was the Adventurers’ Guild of Colin Ishurian that first employed them this way.

What followed was a chorus of hymns. The cheap crystal itself couldn’t produce sound, and instead, the sound came from a beehive-shaped wooden box next to it, similar to an old-fashioned radio. The soft and slow singing became somewhat distorted after passing through the speaker but was still soothing.

Tianlan was the first to finish eating; she put down her knife and fork and wiped her mouth with a napkin before starting to chatter about the events of the past half-month. Having been reunited after a long time, she naturally had endless topics to talk about—whether it was the knowledge she had gained on the way or some interesting occurrences since arriving at Cloud Harbor, and of course, she focused on what people thought of Fang Hong.

She narrated these events one by one, showing a gift for storytelling, almost as if she had an inborn ability like a poet. Though everyone had personally experienced it, listening to her tell their stories made it feel thrilling.

The others listened quietly, as if reliving everything from that time.

Hilveld’s eyes held a shallow light, and she watched the young girl with a slight smile, occasionally placing peeled fruit in front of her, which made Tianlan a bit embarrassed and hurriedly thank her.

”Sister Hilveld, you’re so nice,” Tianlan said.

Miss Ship’s Officer only gave a gentle smile and lightly tousled her hair.

Her eyes shimmered with warm light; how long had it been since she felt such warmth since her father had left?

The lady had treated her quite well but was also very strict. She had no friends in the castle, and everyone kept their distance, although she might have grown accustomed to solitude and quietness.

But after all, hearts still need to comfort each other.

Fang Hong watched this scene and finally felt some reassurance. In his heart, this was a team, just like the one at Morning Dawn Star, which Miss Sicape and Captain Kroid had built.

But this small team in front of him belonged to him.

It was small, but it would one day grow into a towering tree.

He listened to the people talking about some of the recent events, not just in Cloud Harbor but also from all over the kingdom.

The past half-month had naturally been tough for the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team. The Silver Forest Spear and Tabopolis Knights Order didn’t miss the opportunity to kick them while they were down, and the locals gave them a lesson too—the Red Cloak Team might have thought their excuses good enough to work within the Alliance, but the natives who had witnessed everything were not blind.

This series of events, combined with the previous ’mercenary breach of trust’ incident, caused the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team’s image to plummet in the public eye, to the point where even their online army of shills fell silent for a time.

However, the more covert BBK Alliance only received a light warning. People in the community had some slight criticism of the matter, with most considering the BBK Alliance responsible for negligence in oversight.

The Blood Oath Alliance’s manhunt was still ongoing, but as time passed, the chances of capturing its core members grew increasingly slim. With official silence from the various countries about the issue, people gradually forgot about it.

After all, this not-too-big-not-too-small guild had paid a price for the events, and it never held much weight within the Alliance to begin with.

With the final round of the Continental League approaching, it gradually drew everyone’s attention. Although the points and appearance slots were mostly decided, people were guessing whether the Elpaxin Artisan Association would send that genius boy from the other day.

Or whether they’d keep him hidden as a secret weapon until they went to the Osh Empire.

There were also rumors that the boy had already gone to Charter City to help the allied forces of Colin Ishurian and Invoker resist powerful foes, with news of the Dragon’s Claw and Dragon Worshippers amassing a great army in the north spreading throughout Tarun as the war drew nearer each day.

Another matter concerning people was the recent rumor circulating about the disappearance of the Dolifen Fantasy, one of Eteliria’s five great anomalies, which was reportedly solved by someone at last.

Meanwhile, Fang Hong knew that Stargate Port must have been urgently investigating the Invokers who had left the Black Holy City of the First World, trying to locate his whereabouts. He was unsure how long the process would take, but suspected it wouldn’t be lengthy.

Yet Stargate Port let slip not a hint of information, giving off the sense of calm before a storm.

The high regard for him didn’t just come from what followed at Stargate Port; he had also won tremendous reputation for the China Competition Region within the Kingdom of Ishurian—the Super Competitive League even extended an ’olive branch’ to him.

While the Super Competitive League had been working with the Kingdom for many years, there was still much friction between the Invokers and natives due to various differences. The emergence of such a heroic deed was just in time to match the promotion the Super Competitive League was undertaking, greatly bridging the gap between Invokers and natives.